Page 38 of Under the Table

Angelica pressed her lips together hard. Hope might think she needed to be there, but everything about the way she was sitting and speaking said she surely didn’t want to. And Angelica wasn’t going to force her to show up when there were alternatives.

Hope sighed heavily. “How’s Tatum?”

Just that name nearly broke Angelica’s heart. She’d just been on the phone with him that afternoon, and it looked as though she was going to continue managing Mountain View West for at least another year, until they could finally get the property sold. But Hope wasn’t asking about the property. She was asking about the person behind it all.

“He’s struggling.” Angelica sipped her beer again, and when she glanced at Hope, she was surprised to find those crystalline eyes locked on her.

“Really?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Hope nodded slowly. “Yeah, I would. You’re right.” Hope sighed heavily. “Is there anything we can do?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Angelica let her shoulders slump a little. “They’re preparing the space for sale in the next six to nine months, but Tatum’s insisting that they’re going to hold outfor the right person.”

“What does that mean?”

Angelica shrugged. “I’m not sure he even knows. But he’s also still navigating his own grief and his father’s grief during all of this.”

“Would you ever buy it?” Hope bit her lower lip, and Angelica had a hard time dragging her gaze away from where her teeth were pressed into her delicate skin.

“Me?” Angelica blinked, shaking her head. “I’m not in the ownership business, Hope. I manage.”

“But you could own. I’ve seen you work, and I think you could do it.”

Angelica hummed slightly. “It’s not a matter of whether or not I think I can do it.” Angelica never really had struggled with confidence in her own skillset. Hope may have, but not Angelica. “It’s a matter of whether I want to. Ownership means being tied to one place for a long time, especially in the hotel business.”

“But you’ve been at your current hotel in Los Angeles for ten years.”

“Eleven,” Angelica corrected quickly, although she was impressed Hope had even known that. “But I still have owners to answer to. Although, at this point, they mostly let me do whatever I want there. They come in once a year to check on things and leave me alone.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Angelica took another swallow of her beer, glad that the conversation was flowing smoothly. She’d needed that more than the drink.

“That must be nice,” Hope murmured sipping her wine. “I like owning my own restaurants.”

“Have you figured out where you’re opening the next one?”

Hope sighed and shook her head. “I’ve had bigger problems to solve this last year.” She looked directly at Angelica, her shoulders tense, her cheeks taut.

Angelica could only imagine what those things were, but she was fairly certain their last season—or rather the way they ended it—was likely the problem that Hope was referring to. Angelica pursed her lips and said nothing. Because what could she say?

In this entire scenario, she was the other woman, and she was the one who would be blamed for everything. A stolen kiss here or there hadn’t meant much—at least, she’d thought it wouldn’t—but she’d been proven wrong. Again.

She’d put herself in this situation, really. She was always diving into relationships or hoping for them when the other party wasn’t willing or able to reciprocate. It’d been that way with Leanne, and it was the same with Hope. Always and perpetually unavailable or unwilling to be with her fully and completely.

Perhaps it was time to admit that she was destined to be alone and without a romantic partner. She didn’t need anyone, that was for certain. But that longing for a partner, someone to share the woes of the world and the highs and lows of her day had never quite gone away. And it’d taken her until she was in her mid-forties to truly understand that it was something she wanted for herself.

“Lyric has done…quite amazing things with your Instagram in the last year.”

Angelica cocked her head to the side, eyeing Hope carefully. What had she meant by that comment? Sarcasm or truth? Settling on the latter, Angelica nodded. “She has.”

“It’s been crazy the way the fans have erupted around the first season.” Hope finished her glass of wine and ordered another.

“Indeed,” Angelica responded with a slight nod. “Without it, we wouldn’t have gotten renewed.”

“Was that the final nail in the coffin?” Hope sipped her wine, but her eyes were locked on Angelica.